Booz Allen investigated by U.S. over charging practices

Department of Justice sign

(Bloomberg) A unit of Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp. is the focus of criminal and civil probes by the Justice Department related to how it billed the government for contracting work, the company disclosed in a filing.

Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. was notified on June 7 that the Justice Department was investigating how the company accounted for costs and tallied charges to the U.S. government, the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company said it’s cooperating with authorities.

“To date, our internal and external audit processes have not identified any significant deficiencies or material weaknesses, or identified any significant erroneous cost charging,” the company said in the filing.

Booz Allen got 97 percent of its revenue from U.S. government contracts in fiscal 2017, according to a company filing. Its shares tumbled 13.8 percent to $33.50 in post-market trading.

The consulting firm and its employees have drawn scrutiny for its government work before. It employed Edward Snowden, who took and released thousands of classified files from the NSA in 2013 before fleeing the country. One of its consultants, Harold T. Martin III, was indicted by the U.S. Justice Department earlier this year, accused of stealing a massive cache of classified documents while he worked as a contractor for the National Security Agency. He has pleaded not guilty.

Wyn Hornbuckle, a Justice Department spokesman, declined to comment.

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